The Changed Demon
by Blue Feather Pegasus
Summary: Bill has been brought back and betrayed by his once called friends and is now completely human. But even without his powers, trouble still finds him and is putting the Pines family in danger once again. BillxDipper Rated T for violence, mild language, and torture. This is a rewrite of The Once Demon, title changed to avoid confusion.
1. Chapter 1: The Once Demon

**This is a slight AU taking place two years after the series ended. Mabel and Dipper are 14 going on 15. And hello to anyone who read the first version of this story, I'm sorry it was never finished, but hopefully you'll love this one as much as if not more than the first. It should have much more structure, and it will have an ending! I swear.**

 _The forest slowly became aware of a presence. It hadn't just appeared, but rather it was as though a dense fog had been lifted. It was old, ancient even, but broken, perhaps beyond repair. Although it had once been all seeing and all powerful, it was no longer. It was in pain, agony, physical and emotional. It had been beaten, betrayed, almost destroyed, left on death's door to fend for itself with no one to aid it. It was truly, and utterly alone._

It had rained last night, a mighty thunderstorm, and some time during the night, Waddles had gotten out. Dipper was woken by his frantic sister shaking him roughly by the shoulders.

"Dipper! Wake up! Waddles is gone!" she shouted, tears in her eyes. Although Dipper was by no means a morning person, his sister's panicked state jolted him awake.

"What?" he asked, bolting upright and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Waddles. Got. Out," Mabel said slowly and loudly as though Dipper was too stupid to understand her words. "He is terrified of thunder, but I didn't realize he'd go outside to get away from it." She was really crying now; Dipper hated to see her cry. He swung his feet out of bed and held her close.

"We'll go right now and find him okay? Grab some of his favorite snacks and I'll let Grunkle Stan know what's happening. Can you do that?" he asked gently. Mabel nodded, rubbing the tears from her eyes.

"Yeah, meet you outside Dipping Sauce." Dipper hugged her tight once more before sliding down the stair rail already calling for Stan. Mabel followed him down just as fast. She slid into the kitchen on socked feet and pulled open the fridge.

"Cheese, carrots, waffles," she listed as she threw some of the little pigs favorite things onto the kitchen counter before digging around in a drawer.

Dipper appeared in the kitchen a moment later with his rain boots on and Mabel's boots under his arm.

"Got the snacks?" he asked.

"Yup, here," she tossed him a plastic bag full of treats. Dipper set her boots on the floor and she practically jumped into them, bolting for the door while dragging her brother behind her. Stan appeared in the living room in his underwear as they sped past.

"You kids be careful! I'll stay here incase he comes back!" he called after them.

Once outside Mabel paused, uncertain.

"Lets split up," Dipper started. "You take the north, I'll take the south, we can cover more ground that way." He tossed her a walky talky and her phone. "Cell service can be weird in some parts of the woods, if you can't get through just use the walkie."

Mabel nodded in understanding and made a beeline for the trees. Dipper turned and ran the other way into the forest.

The mud was stained red with blood. A figure lay on its side curled tightly in on itself. It was a boy, no older than 14. His bright yellow hair was stained brown with mud and blood. He wore only a tattered pair of cotton paints, claw marks and bruises showing beneath the tears. His whole body was covered in wounds, but his back was particularly horrifying. Carved deep into his flesh was a zodiac, the cipher wheel. This pitiful creature was none other than Bill Cipher, Dream Demon, Nightmare Bringer, Deal Maker. Well, it was what was left of Bill Cipher, after he was turned to stone then brought back by his so called 'friends' only to torture and torment him for failing so miserably in weirdmageddon. Eventually, after 2 years, they'd gotten bored and left him, in one of those human meat sacks he hated so much, to die or be eaten by the creatures of the stupid forest he obsessed over.

Bill whimpered as he regained consciousness, all the pain flooding back to him. He dared not cry out as most of his ribs were broken. All he could do was try not to agitate his wounds, and not look like a tasty treat, but with all the blood around him and flowing from him, that was near impossible.

'Is this how i'm gonna end?' he thought to himself. 'Beaten in the …" but before he could finish his thought, a nearby bush stirred. Bill opened his eyes and uncurled slightly to see.

'I'm not gonna let some stupid animal eat me,' he thought, not really knowing where the determination was coming from. But rather than a bear or feral gnome as he was expecting, a pink pig stumbled out of the bush. The once demon and the pig stared at each other for a moment, Bill forgetting his agony for a second, before his broken wrist throbbed and he curled back in on himself, and soft hiss escaping his lips.

"Waddles! Here piggy piggy piggy!" came a call. Bill jolted in surprise, regretting it immediately when his ribs cried out in protest. Waddles gave a loud oink in response to hearing his name, but didn't take his beady eyes off the broken form in the mud.

"There you are you stupid pig, Mabel is going to be so relieved." Dipper stepped out from the underbrush and scooped up the pig, holding it under his arm like a football. He went for his phone and checked the signal. After speed dialing his sister he held it to his ear. The call went through on the first ring.

"Did you find him?" Mabel asked desperately on the other end of the line.

"Yup, got him right here," he said brightly. "Dumb thing got all the way out near the grow crystals. Lucky he didn't stumble into…" Dipper stopped mid sentence when he noticed something looking at him. One blue eye and one yellow one glowed with a dull light from the mud, and it took a second for him to work out the shape of a human form bent and broken on the forest floor.

"Dipper? Dipper!" Mabel called through the phone. Dipper ignored her, shock holding him in place.

"Hey Pine Tree," a familiar voice said, though lacking its usual malece and instead sounding hoarse from overuse. "I don't suppose you could lend me a han…" Bill's words were lost as he passed out face first in the mud.

"Mabel," Dipper said slowly and cautiously. "I think you better get over here."

"What's wrong? Is Waddles hurt?" she asked frantically.

"No, but it looks like we have a situation here." Mabel could hear the tense fear in her twins voice and chose not to question him.

"Okay, you said you're near the weird crystal things right?"

"Grow crystals, yeah," Dipper corrected her.

"I'll be right there, keep Waddles safe until I get there." Mabel hung up the phone and turned herself around wondering what the hell was going on.

The first thing Mabel noticed when she burst into the clearing was her precious pig tucked safely under her brother's arm.

"Oh Waddles!" she cried out, stepping through a very bumpy mud puddle and snatching the pink pig away from her brother, holding it close and cooing to it.

"I'll never take my eyes off you again you little angel." The pig oinked happily at the attention.

"So what's the problem Dippy? I don't see anything."

"Uh, you kinda stepped on it?" Dipper said, his eyes still glued to the mud that Mabel had walked through. Mabel, not noticing where he was looking checked the bottom of her boots.

"No, over there," Dipper turned her around and pointed. As it had for Dipper, it took her a few moments to work out what she was looking at. But once it clicked she moved to rush to the person's side, her gentle caring nature taking over, but Dipper held her back.

"What the hell Dip?" she turned on him, trying to tug her sweater sleeve out of his grasp. "Someone is hurt and you're just standing there?"

"That's not it Mabel, you don't understand."

"Understand what? That someone needs my help?"

"That someone is Bill Cipher," Dipper whispered.

"No it's not, that evil dorito died years ago."

"I don't know how, or why, but that's definitely him. He was conscious when I found him and he called me Pine Tree. And those eyes," Dipper shuddered. "It's him alright." Dipper finally let go of Mabel. He looked defeated.

The moment Mabel was free she marched right over to Bill. Setting her pig down she knelt in the mud and brushed the hair away from his face. Bruises and scrapes marred what would probably have been a rather attractive person. He breathing was shallow, every few breaths coming as a ragged weeze.

Dipper walked up behind his sister and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Lets just leave him Mabel, he'll be dead soon anyway."

"No." She stood and faced her twin.

"What?" Dipper gawked.

"I said no. He might be a really bad person but I'm not. I am not going to stand by while someone, even someone as horrible as Bill Cipher is dying. Now you can either help me take him back to the Mystery Shack, or I'll do it by myself."

"Mabel, I know you are all sunshine and rainbows, but this is Bill Cipher we are talking about! He almost killed us. You didn't hesitate to try to kill him before, what's changed now?!" He threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"That changed," Mabel said pointing at the broken form below her. "He's a human now Dipper, and he needs help."

"This could all be a trick, and the moment you move to help him he'll kill you," Dipper pleaded with his sister. He made another move to pull her away but she slapped his hand. Dipper sighed.

"Dipper," Mabel said, her tone much softer. Dipper looked into those pleading, soft brown eyes. "Dipper please."

"Ugh, fine," Dipper gave in. He bend down and pulled one of Bill's arms over his shoulder, Mabel taking the other. Bill was just a tad shorter than the twins and certainly lighter. It looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks.

"I am so going to regret this," Dipper mutter as he and his sister trudged back toward the shack, the little pink pig waddling after them.

 **And there you go, first chapter finished. I am feel really good about this, what do you guys think? Any suggestions? And comments? Please review, I love input.**


	2. Chapter 2: An Argument

At the Mystery Shack, Stan and Soos were working on their latest attraction out back. The tourist trap was closed for the day so the necessary cleaning and refurbishing could be completed without prying eyes. Ford was sitting on the beat up couch working on a shiny new laptop. Unlike his twin, Ford had adjusted to the latest technology easily; after all, he'd worked with much more advanced equipment in some of the dimensions he'd traveled to.

And thus the morning looked rather peaceful, until the younger Pines twins wandered out of the forest dragging a limp body between them.

"What'd you got there kids?" Stan asked looking up from his work. But before the old man could swap his safety goggles for glasses, his twin flew past him.

Ford eased Bill off the teens shoulders and onto the grass where he could get a better look at him.

"Stan! Bring my medical kit now!" Ford demanded.

"I'll get it boss!" Soos intervened, bolting back into the shack.

"Who is this? Where did you find him? What happened?" Ford asked in one breath, as he opened Bill's eyes and shined a penlight into them.

"Dipper thinks It's Bill, as in "Bill Cipher"' Mabel said as if the idea was ludicrous. Ford froze and looked to Dipper for and explanation.

"It is Cipher!" Dipper demanded. "I'd know that eye anywhere." Meanwhile, Soos had brought Fords rather large medical kit and opened it up for him. But the old scientist didn't acknowledge it; his mind was spinning. Stan came to stand behind his brother, an angry look in his eyes.

"Please Grunkle Ford, you have to help him!" Mabel begged giving her great uncle her best puppy dog eyes.

"He really doesn't," Dipper countered. "He knows more about Bill's atrocities than any of us."

"Stop using big words to make your point sound better! It'd be just plain wrong not to help him! He's just a kid like us! If you don't help him, you'll be just as bad as he was!" Mabel turned on her twin. Rarely had Ford seen them so at odds. He knew the logical decision was to let Bill die. He may have come back once, but would he really be able to a second time? However, he couldn't help but be curious. Questions about how a demon could turn into a human and how this would affect Bill and the world around him spun into his mind. And of course Ford's own humanity was fighting against him. Just by looking at him, this creature was a human child in desperate need of help, and Ford's animal instincts so desperately wanted to help him. Ford had made a decision.

"Of course I'll help him Mabel," Mabel quietly fist bumped the air. "However," Ford looked to Dipper, "At the first sign of trouble I won't hesitate to end him."

With that, Ford pulled his medical kit toward him and quickly did what he could to stop Bill's bleeding. Stan sulked into the Mystery Shake. After a once over, Ford realized he was going to have to move Bill to treat him properly. With Soos' help, who took no complaint at aiding the once demon, they took Bill inside and down to Ford's lab where he could help him better and keep a closer eye on him. Though Mabel wanted to stay with Bill, Ford forbade it; after all, if this was all a trick Ford had the best chance at facing Bill one on one.

"At least let me know as soon as he wakes up," Mabel requested.

"Of course Mabel," Ford consoled. "You'll be the first to know." He gave her the best smile he could muster and she skipped back to the elevator. Dipper begrudgingly turned to leave as well, but Ford asked him to stay a moment long.

"Dipper," he said solemnly. "I know you don't like my decision, but I want you to know I don't trust this situation in the slightest. That being said, your sister is right about one thing, it wouldn't make us any better than him if we act before we have all the facts. And if that means keeping Bill Cipher alive until we can get those facts and then ending him later, that is what I am going to do." Dipper squared his shoulders and nodded. "One more thing, I want to look out for your sister. She has a big heart, and while that's not a flaw in itself, it can lead her to leap before she looks. Just make sure doesn't throw herself into the fire."

"Grunkle Ford," Dipper laughed, "I've been doing that since we were born. I'm not going to change that now."

"Good," Ford nodded. "Now get out of here before the demon wakes up." Dipper went up to join his sister and Ford turned back to his patient.

"I really hope I don't regret this."

That night, Mabel woke to the sound of arguing. She crept out of bed and as quietly as she could and opened the door.

"I've allowed your ridiculous experiments before, but this is crossing the line," Stan said in a voice more angry than she had heard in years. "I sacrificed myself to have that thing destroyed! And I want it re-destroyed!"

"You know I can't do that Stanley," Ford's voice was too calm.

"Why not? Cause it would upset Mabel? We're talking about their lives! Just tell her he lost too much blood."

"Now you're really overreacting. I've been running tests, and they all say Bill Cipher is completely human. There's barely a trace of magic at all!"

"He could be screwing with the tests!"

"Impossible. He is perfectly safe!" Fords calm was leaving his voice.

"Safe?! Safe?! Are we talking about the same monster Stanford? The same one that nearly killed us, that destroyed our town? That made you build that crazy portal that caused me to loose you for so long? That perfectly safe monster?"

"Calm down Stanley. I've got everything under control."

"No you don't. You've bitten off more than you can chew. If you don't destroy that, that thing, I'll send the kids home first thing tomorrow."

At the prospect of leaving Gravity Falls only days after arriving, Mabel bolted down the stairs and startled her Grunkles into shocked silence.

"Me and Dipper will do no such thing," She stated matter of factly.

"Sweety, how much of that did you hear?" Stan asked a hint of fear in his voice.

"I heard enough to know that you still don't trust your own twin," Mabel said pointedly. "Just let him try Grunkle Stan. Having a twin means sometimes you just have to trust them even if you don't think it's a good idea. Dipper does that for me all the time. And most of the time he is right, but sometimes I am right. You just have to hope for the times that Ford is right, right?" Mabel looked over her shoulder at Ford, who had had little troubling following her line of thinking, nodded in agreement.

Stan sighed deeply. "Fine. I'll trust you Stanford. But the moment I think this experiment is going to hurt one of the kids that monster goes. You got that?"

"Of course Stanley. I may be brash but I'm not stupid."

"Now hug!" Mabel demanded. The older twins looked at her with baffled looks. "Have you really made up if you haven't had an awkward sibling hug?" she asked completely serious. To appease their favorite grand niece they hugged.

"Now that all the shouting is over can I go back to bed?" Dipper said from the stairs startling everyone in the room.

"You're not even awake!" Mabel laughed guiding her half asleep twin back to bed. After Stan heard the attic door close he turned to his twin once more, and in a quiet whisper said, "I meant it Ford, the moment I say so, that demon dies." Ford only nodded before wandering off to his room to pour over everything he knew about Bill Cipher.

 _The first thing he noticed was the floating sensation. His mind was so muddled that that was all he could focus on for a while. Floating through the endless nothing. But then his fingers felt the soft bedding and he knew he wasn't floating, he was just no longer in pain. Something was flowing through him and stopping it. When he finally managed to open his eyes bright lights assaulted his delicate vision and he closed them again. With much effort he turned his head and opened his eyes again. He was looking at a wall, a black wall with white writing on it, writing he felt he should be able to read but couldn't. With less effort this time he looked the other way and saw a colorful array of instruments and chemicals. Well, it was somewhat colorful, and his drugged brain had trouble figuring it out. After much concentration and focus, he realized that while his right eye, (the yellow one) could see in perfect color his left eye (the blue one) was completely color blind. Why this was he couldn't seem to understand. Had he always been this way? No. He'd had only one eye before right? When was that? It seems so long ago. A loud clang jolted him out of his thoughts. The sound of boots on a metal floor drew near and a figure appeared in his line of sight. He squinted to see properly, and a large hand appeared in front of him._ A six fingered hand!

 **Ta da! Please review! Your feedback inspires me! And don't forget to spay and neuter your cats and dogs!**


	3. Chapter 3: A Deal

Bill Cipher snapped into consciousness. He scrambled backward to get away from Sixer and the strange metal object that he held in his other hand, an object that Bill's half conscious mind was sure was meant to cause pain. However, Bill was on a tall medical bed, and in his attempt to get away, he crashed onto the floor. Pain shot through his body and he cried out.

"Woah, easy," Ford said gently as he pushed the bed away, which was on wheels, to kneel by Cipher, who had curled into a ball.

"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you Cipher." Ford eased Bill into a sitting position.

"Sixer?" Bill asked. "What's going on?"

"The kids found you in the woods and brought you here." Ford said cautiously.

"And here is? Oh, under the shack," Bill looked up and recognized the stone ceiling. He tried to stand up, but immediately fell back down when pain shot through his foot.

"You're going to pull your stitches out doing that," Ford warned. Bill looked at himself and found his chest and arms were completely wrapped in white bandages. He could guess his legs were in a similar situation under the white cotton pants he was wearing.

"You're helping me?" Bill asked, shocked.

"Only for scientific curiosity," Ford said. He scooped up the boy, with no small amount of protest, and deposited him back onto the bed. After adjusting the headrest so Bill was in a sitting position, and checking that the IV hadn't been disrupted, he offered him a glass of water. Bill gingerly took the glass in his left hand, his right was completely encased in bandages. Ford sighed and help him put the glass to his lips and drink. After it was empty, Ford brought back out the syringe that had startled Bill originally.

"I need to take some blood Cipher." Bill nodded his consent and flinched slightly when the needle entered his vein. As he was drawing blood, Bill asked, "How long have I been unconscious?"

"Three days. We were beginning to think you weren't ever going to wake up. There." Ford withdrew the needle and pressed a cotton ball to the puncure. "What happened to you anyway?"

"I don't really know myself," Bill admitted. "After my failure conquering your pathetic world, my colleagues wanted revenge. I don't know how, but they managed to turn me back from stone. They did things…" Bill shuddered. "Things I don't want to ever think about again. Before turning me into one of you stupid meat sacks. Then they broke this body as much as they could, before leaving me for dead. How broken am I?" Ford thought solemnly for a moment before answering.

"Well, almost all your ribs are broken, your left ankle is busted as are most of the bones in that foot. Your right wrist is shattered. You have severe lacerations all over your body, not to mention the damage to your back, and there is some second and third degree burns on your chest. You lost a lot of blood and were severely dehydrated. You also seem to be suffering from malnutrition. I've got you dosed up on a ton of painkillers, so I'm rather surprised that you are so lucid." Bill took all of this without looking away from Ford.

"It's probably a leftover of being a demon," Bill said matter of factly.

"What is?"

"The painkillers not affecting my mind. A demon's mind is far superior to a humans." Even though Bill would never admit it, even now he could feel his vast intellect dwindling. He couldn't recall his oldest memories, and his omnipotence was fading fast. He tried doing a complex mathematical equation in his head and found that he couldn't. He was really turning into a human.

"I'm going to get you something to eat," Ford said as he started walking away. Bill stared at the ceiling, bored beyond belief, until Ford came back, but he wasn't alone.

"Hi you evil dorito!" Mabel said cheerfully, her brother lurking behind her.

"Shooting Star, Pine Tree. Come to bemone my current state?"

"They've come to see if they should have left you for the monsters," Ford said, dropping a plate of pancakes and potatoes onto Bill's lap.

"I want to make it perfectly clear that I was all for leaving you in the woods," Dipper said, as he approached the once-demon.

"Calm down bro bro," Mabel sighed. Dipper glared at his twin.

Ford ignored them and handed Bill a fork. "Are you left handed?" he asked.

"I think so," Bill said, as he clumsily tried to cut off a piece of pancake. His fork slipped and he mumbled under his breath, "Stupid body, not doing what I want." Mabel stepped in.

"Here," she gently took his hand in hers and helped him cut his food. Bill swore he could hear Dipper growling when she touched him, but didn't interfere.

Bill had never had someone help him before. Normally, people only made deals with him because they wanted something. He'd never really experienced human kindness before; it felt strange.

"Well, I'm going to run some tests on this blood," Ford broke the awkward silence that had fallen. "Wanna help Dipper?"

"Sure," Dipper followed his mentor to a different part of the lab while Mabel continued to help Bill eat.

Later that night, Bill received a visit from Stanley Pines.

A crash, followed by a steady stream of swearing woke Bill from his drug induced sleep. A light blared in his face and a hand roughly grabbed his forearm, squeezing tightly against one of his worse burns.

Bill cried out in pain, but a hand clamped against his mouth.

"Quite. I don't want to wake Ford." Stanly came into focus, and fear welled up in Bill's chest.

"What do you want?" Bill asked through grit teeth.

"I want to make sure you will never hurt my family again monster," Stan pressed his other hand on Bills broken wrist.

"I'll do whatever you want, just stop," Bill whined, tears starting to stream down his face. Stan lessened the pressure.

"I want you to make a deal with me. Swear to never hurt my family again," Stan demanded.

"Deal's are only binding if there is an exchange," Stan pressed harder against his wrist. "How about this. As long as I never hurt your family, you won't hurt me?" Bill offered. Slowly, Stan's eyes narrowed. He gave one final sqweeze to Bill's arm before letting him go.

"Deal," Stan held out his hand. Weakly, Bill raised his injured hand to shake. A faint glimmer a blue flames binded the deal, and Stan left Bill to a fitful sleep.

A week passed uneventfully. Ford was somewhat shocked with the speed that Bill healed at. Already some of the lesser cuts and burns where nothing more than scars, and he was able to remove some of the stiches. At Mabel's insistence, Bill was put in a wheelchair and taken outside to soak up some much needed vitamin D and watch the comings and goings of the tourists.

Ford had replaced the thick bandages on Bill's broken ankle and hand for proper casts which Mabel was currently covering in stickers and glitter, but Bill didn't mind. He had a pit cola in his uninjured hand, and was watching a small child running around in the grass, chasing Mabel's pig who was clearly having a ball.

"Waddles! Come over and say hi to Bill," Mabel looked up from where she was kneeling on the deck decorating Bill's cast. Cheerfully, the little creature stopped what he was doing, and trotted over. However, once he was a few feet away, he paused. He sniffed the air and his eyes went wide. Slowly, he backed away.

"What's wrong with him?" Mabel asked, standing up.

"He probably smells me. Demons aren't really animal friendly," Bill explained matter of factly.

"But you're not a demon anymore." Mabel went over to her pet and picked him up. She tried carrying the pig over to Bill, but the normally gentle creature thrashed and squealed until Mabel was forced to drop him. Annoyed, the pig trotted off to go find something better to do.

"It's okay Mabel. He's clearly a smart pig," Bill said.

"Smarter than most of us," Stan appeared in the doorway. "I really don't like you having the demon outside Mabel. I'd feel much better if you kept him locked up in the lab." Stan stated.

"Bill is not a demon anymore." Mabel stomped her foot to emphasise her point.

"The pig thinks he is," Stan pointed out.

"Well Ford said he is less than 2% demon, and that's human enough for me."

"Why are you so insistent on defending that thing?" Stan asked, exasperated.

"I'm right here you know," Bill tried, but Stan glared daggers at him and he stopped talking.

"Because, we can teach him to be good. This is our chance, but you just want to throw it away." Mabel glared at her grunkle, who signed, defeated.

"Fine. But I wouldn't let that thing out of my sight." Stan marched back into the shack.

"I'm sorry, Bill. They'll warm up to you eventually." Mabel sank to the floor among her art supplies.

"I wouldn't be mad if they never did. I'm starting to understand where they're coming from. Human emotions are weird, but, in their own crazy way, I guess they make sense," Bill stared off into the forest.

"I'm not going to let the hurt you," Mabel said defiantly, and went back to decorating.


	4. Chapter 4: Night Terrors

**H.. Hey guys. Please don't be too mad at me for abandoning you for so long, but I'm going to try to pick this story back up. It's been swirling in the back of my mind for a while now, desperate to get back onto the page. So here we go again.**

"This is fascinating!" Ford exclaimed, startling Dipper who had begun to nod off.

"What?" Dipper sat up at the table and looked at the papers scattered between him and Ford. They were down in the lab trying to figure out Bill's unique biology by pouring over the extensive data they'd managed to collect in the short week they'd had him.

"Look at this, Dipper," Ford passed an X-ray to the teen. Dipper held it up to the light, and found he was looking at a picture of the once demon's skull.

"I don't know what I am looking at Ford," Dipper complained, trying to stifle a yawn.

"Compare it to this," Ford pushed a textbook on human anatomy across the table, open to images of the human skull.

"It looks the same to me, HOLY CRAP!" Dipper exclaimed, finally realizing what his grunkle had noticed. "There aren't any fuse lines!"  
"Exactly. Exactly. When humans are born, the eight bones that make up the cranium are separated, to allow the bones to slide over each other while passing through the birth canal. As a human grows, these bones fuse together, leaving behind distinctive lines. But Bill doesn't have these lines, which means?" Ford asked.

"He wasn't born!" Dipper exclaimed.

"Exactly. For a while I was worried that the demons that turned him human didn't make a body for him, but rather stole one from another human. But this proves that theory wrong. They did in fact make a body, rather than take a body."

"And they took shortcuts," Dipper added.

"Yes. Yes. This could spell trouble if they took shortcuts elsewhere. What if his immune system is flawed, or he is missing an important gut bacteria?" Ford furiously started writing in his new journal, while Dipper did the same in his.

Elsewhere in the house, the residents where asleep, as the time was currently 2:00am. Stan and Mabel were tucked away in their rooms, while Bill had been moved from the chilly lab to the couch in the living room. Said once demon was tossing and turning in his sleep. One of the many downsides to being human was a lack of instinctual control of one's dreams.

Bill's dream found him chained by his wrists to a pole, nearly hanging, while his _friends_ whipped and beat him. The pain seemed real, and the fear certainly was.

As Bill cried out, he heard a familiar laugh all around him. It stirred some deep memory, a memory he'd long forgotten before his puny human mind had dumped nearly all his memories, or perhaps he had repressed it. Whatever the case, it sent chills down his spine, as the color washed away from dream, and he found himself in an empty void.

"Hello?" Bill called out, his voice cracking with his fear. The laugh echoed again, like a knife scraped over a stone.

"Remember me?" the voice called out, before Bill awoke by falling off the couch.

"Are you okay?" Mabel stood over him, worry in her eyes, a plush pegasus held to her chest. "You where thrashing in your sleep."

"No," Bill answered honestly, sitting up and rubbing his temples.

"Bad dreams?" Mabel asked. Bill nodded. "Dipper gets those sometimes. He usually goes outside and looks at the stars for a while till he feels better."

"What do you do?" Bill asked. Mabel smiled at the question.

"I hold on to my plushies and hide under my blanket where the monsters can't get me!" Bill couldn't tell if she was joking or not, as was often the case with the more rambunctious of the younger twins. "Here," she held out her plush pegasus for him. "Why don't you try?"

Bill gingerly took the toy from her, unsure of what she wanted him to do. Mabel rolled her eyes.

"Try hugging her," she suggested. Bill tried, and was quite surprised to find he actually felt a little better. Already that ominous voice he had heard was fading from his mind.

Mabel helped the once demon back onto the couch and tucked him in.

"Try to get some more sleep okay," she said as she headed back upstairs. Bill curled up around the plush toy, and slowly let his mind slip back into unconsciousness.

An hour latter, Dipper passed through the living room on his way to bed, but paused by the couch holding the being that once was his greatest enemy. He wrinkled his nose when he saw the toy caught in the demon's grasp, but his expression softened when he noticed new bruises on his hands. Bill had been thrashing in his sleep again.

The demon's night mares hadn't gone unnoticed by the young explorer, and night terrors were something he was all too familiar with. He'd had them on and off since he was young, and they were never a pleasant experience. Looking at the once demon, Dipper couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy, as he resolved to talk to Bill about his nightmares in the morning, but first, he needed to sleep. He'd stayed up way too late again with Ford, who never seemed to get any rest.

 **Just a short chapter to get me back into the swing of things, and to establish a few important plot points, as well as set up Dipper's character arc. As always, I thrive on your reviews.**


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